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      <h1 class="header" align="center"><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">New 
        Player's Guide 2</font></h1>
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      <P class="header"><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Starkick 
        Traders is a <b>persistent universe</b> turn based game. Each action generally 
        takes 1 turn. You start with an initial number of turns and get 2 turns 
        every 2 minutes or about 60 turns per hour. The game is always playing<font color="#FF0000"> 
        (unless we're building a new universe) </font>whether you are logged in 
        or not. So your ship, planets, alliances and even the little people who 
        work on your planets are there, living, breathing and working for you.</font></P>
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    <td><img src="images/pictorial/cruiser3.jpg" width="240" height="180" align="right"> 
      <h2 class="secondbar"><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Navigation 
        </font></h2>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">You navigate through 
        the universe using one of two methods:</font></P>
      <ul>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Warp Links</font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Real Space Engines</font></li>
      </ul>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Warp links are like 
        gateways between two different sectors in the universe. Regardless of 
        the linear distance between two points, a warp link will always only take 
        1 turn. This makes it the best way to move early on in the game. The disadvantage 
        of warping is that you can only go where there are warp links. Generally, 
        consecutively numbered sectors will have a link between them, but this 
        is not always the case. To find your way to a sector using warp links 
        ask your Nav Computer for the route - most of the time it knows the way.</font></P>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Real space movement 
        allows you to go anywhere in the universe using your ships engines. The 
        bigger your engines are, the faster you can go and so the quicker you 
        can move between points in the universe and therefore the less turns you 
        use. Initially, your engines will be low powered, so moving between sectors 
        will take a huge number of turns, so it is not worth using real space 
        movement early in the game.</font></P>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">It's important to never 
        take a link without making sure that you can come back from the new sector, 
        unless your realspace engines are big enough to get you back efficiently. 
        There are a lot of one way links in this game. Try to stay away from them. 
        Also, write down everywhere you go. That way you can get back to Sol when 
        it's time to upgrade. </font></td></tr><tr>
    <td><img src="images/pictorial/port1.jpg" width="240" height="179" align="right"> 
      <h2 class="secondbar"><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Basic 
        Strategy </font></h2>
      <OL>
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Special ports sell 
          upgrades for your ships. Sector 0 is always a special port. Write down 
          any other special ports you find. </font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Different regions 
          of the galaxy are governed by different rules.<font color="#FF0000"> 
          Federation space prevents any form of combat, so new players are safe 
          in Federation space.</font> You can tell what region or zone you are 
          in by looking in the top right corner of your screen. </font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Try to find a goods 
          or an ore port. Scan each sector from Sol. If there isn't one, move 
          to sector 1 and keep trying. As soon as you find an ore or a goods port, 
          move there and trade. </font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Now try to find a 
          different port adjacent to the port you are in. In other words, if you 
          first found a goods port, find an ore port next to it. The important 
          thing is to find two adjacent sectors with ore and goods ports close 
          to Sol. This step may take a while. Don't forget to look in Federation 
          Space, there are ports there too.</font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Trade back and forth 
          between these ports until you can afford an upgrade. At this point, 
          go back to Sol and upgrade your hull. The bigger your hull, the more 
          cargo you can carry and therefore the more money you can make in each 
          turn. Go back to the sectors you found and start trading again. </font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Keep doing this until 
          you have a spare 100k credits. Use it to buy an escape pod. Keep trading 
          and upgrading your hull. </font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">When you have a spare 
          million, buy an <font color="#FF0000">Emergency Warp Device</font>. 
          Emergency Warp devices will move your ship to a random sector if you 
          are attacked. Keep upgrading your hull. You should be relatively unkillable 
          at this point. Emergency warp devices become unreliable though when 
          your average tech level reaches size 15. They become totally useless 
          around average level 25. By then though you should be adept at running.</font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">When you have the 
          cash, buy more EWDs. For every EWD you buy, also get a <font color="#FF0000">Warp 
          Editor</font>. That way, if you are attacked, you can create a one way 
          link back to Sol (sector 0) and use it. You can't be stranded in the 
          middle of nowhere. This becomes unnecessary when your real space engines 
          are large enough. </font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif" color="#FF0000">Use 
          traderoutes.</font><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"> 
          Traderoutes help automate the task of trading. You can get your ship 
          computer to move between 2 ports and trade the commodities without you 
          having to issue commands to move, trade etc. It still takes the same 
          number of turns, but requires less work from you. Traderoutes can work 
          on either real space or warp links. When you first start out, you will 
          want to use warp links, so find sectors that are linked by warp links 
          to trade between. Traderoutes can be one way or two ways. A two way 
          traderoute means your ship will buy commodities from port A, sell them 
          at port B, buy from port B then go back to port A and sell. </font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"> <font color="#FF0000">Sector 
          defenses</font> consist of mines and fighters. <font color="#FF0000">Mines 
          are deployed torpedoes</font>. Mines can only detect an incoming ship 
          with an average tech size greater than a certain level. Usually 8. Fighters 
          can be set to one of two modes. Attack or Toll. In attack mode, they 
          will attack any ship that does not belong to their owner or a member 
          of their owners alliance. In toll mode, they will only let you enter 
          the sector safely if you agree to pay a toll. <font color="#FF0000">Unfortunately, 
          the mines still might get you so watch out!</font> </font><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Sector 
          fighters require energy from a friendly planet to remain in the sector. 
          If there is insufficient or no energy, they will slowly break down. 
          A defense against mines are mine deflectors. It is a good idea to carry 
          a lot of these. They are cheap anyway. With fighters, you are given 
          the options of fighting, retreating or using your ships cloaking device 
          to try and sneak in to the sector. Sector fighters require energy from 
          a friendly planet in the same sector, otherwise they begin to degrade. 
          The default amount of energy required is 1 unit of energy per 10 ships. 
          Energy can be taken from any of your planets or from a corporate planet 
          from your alliance in that sector. </font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"> Planets can be created 
          (and destroyed) with a genesis torpedo. Planets can produce commodities 
          that you can sell to fund your fleet. The more colonists you have, the 
          more they produce. You can use traderoutes to populate your planets 
          from special ports. <font color="#FF0000">Build planets in sectors with 
          an Energy or Organics port as they buy the high value goods and ore 
          that you can make.</font></font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Now go to the regular 
          <A 
        href="faq.html">FAQ</A> and pick a strategy to follow. Or make up your 
          own. </font></LI>
      </OL>
      <P class="secondbar"><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"> Here's 
        a list of things for new players NOT to do, unless you really want to: 
        </font>
      <OL>
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Don't scan people. 
          Generally people scan others right before they attack. Don't scan their 
          planets either. </font>
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Don't logout in a 
          sector with other players or their planets. They might assume you are 
          scouting out locations for a bigger player and then decide to kill you. 
          </font>
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Don't attack anyone 
          who is ranked higher than you. You will most likely die in the attempt.</font></LI>
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      <h2><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Some helpful hints: 
        </font></h2>
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      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">This is just a random 
        listing of helpful hints. </font>
      <OL>
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Whenever you are 
          choosing between two sectors, such as if you're in a goods port sector 
          and it connects to two different ore port sectors, always choose the 
          one that has more links. That way you'll have more options on where 
          to go next. </font>
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">When you create a 
          planet, use warp editors to destroy all of the links heading into and 
          out of the sector. Then make a one way link back to the closest special. 
          That way if people who can't realspace happen into your sector they 
          will be able to get out again. </font>
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Try to make friends 
          with someone in the top 10. That way, if you are attacked and defeated, 
          chances are your new friend can exact retribution. </font>
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">If you don't use 
          a utility to map where you've been, write down all specials, planets 
          and who own them, goods ports, and ore ports you run across. It's nice 
          to know where a new ore port. </font></LI>
      </OL>
      <h2 class="header"><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Email 
        Alerts:</font></h2>
      <p><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Starkick Traders is 
        a persistent universe game - that means that the game keeps on playing 
        even if you are not logged in. Enemies can scan you or attack; your colonies 
        can grow; interest in your bank will accrue and turns will be granted. 
        To let you know important events as they occur, Starkick Traders will 
        send you alerts by email. If you do not want to receive these you can 
        switch them off in the Main Menu &gt; Options page but if you want to 
        win, we really recommend you don't turn them off.</font></p>
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      <h2><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Glossary:</font> </h2>
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      <P> 
      <OL>
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><B>creds</B>- short 
          for credits. </font>
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><B>EWD</B>- this 
          is short for emergency warp device. </font>
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><B>EWB burn</B>- 
          when a player attacks another player specifically to activate and EWD 
          he is doing a "burn". </font>
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><B>fits/torps</B>- 
          short for fighters and torpedoes. You see this abbreviation in the forums 
          all the time. </font>
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><B>M or B or G</B>- 
          M(mega) stands for a million. B(billion) and G(giga, means billion) 
          both mean a billion. In other words 4G creds means you have 4 billion 
          credits. </font>
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><B>rs move</B>- this 
          is just short for realspace move. It means using your engines to move. 
          </font>
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><B>Sol bump</B>- 
          when you're above a certain level you automatically get kicked out of 
          federation space. People call this a Sol bump.</font></LI>
      </OL>
      <p class="firstbar"><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><a href="main.php" class="firstbar">Now... 
        click here to start the game!</a></font></p>
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